A Mew Mew Story
by Idrani
Summary: In a world nine years after the Tokyo Mew Mew saved Tokyo from being invaded by Cyniclons, California high school student junior Justin Currant couldn't have even guesses that they were still around- and real. That is, until he discovers that a fellow classmate is one of them... and he is too!
1. Odd Encounters

At six twenty-nine a.m. I woke up to the sound of… breakfast.

The microwave was running. It was morning already? Still dazed from sleep, I shrugged the small background noise away and tried to rest again. For some reason I was very tired. However, I barely was able to get ten seconds of shut-eye when my alarm clock went off. I cracked open one eye, hit the snooze button, and forced myself to wake up some more.

 _Monday, Monday…_ I echoed sullenly in my head- I hated weekdays- as I struggled out of my bed sheets, lazily making my way out of my room and into the kitchen, but not before giving my hair a quick brush.

"Good morning, Justin," my mother greeted me. She didn't have a blond hair out of place, and her blue eyes were fully made-up. Clearly she was more of a morning person than I was. "I was just heating up some syrup for the leftover pancakes from the weekend."

"Hi, Mom," I replied. "And yes, I heard." I made my way over to the table. I shielded my eyes from a ray of morning sun and settled down.

My mother came over, apron and all, and put a plate of pancakes in front of me. She seemed to hesitate before saying, "The earthquake last night didn't bother you at all, did it?"

"Earthquake? Where?" I knew I hadn't gotten a good sleep, but why didn't I notice it, then? I took a bite of my pancakes. The TV was on in the living room; I raised my head to get a better look. Sure enough, the news was broadcasting it as well. Mom was watching it too. According to the newscaster, the earthquake had only affected our town. And it was pretty noticeable, apparently, but not destructive.

"Here, silly. First time in nine years," my mom said, and ruffled my hair. "But I'm glad you weren't disturbed." Unfortunately, it seemed like I was. I still felt very incoherent.

"Oh. Wow. I guess that is good." I responded, offering a smile for my mom, and continued working at my breakfast.

After breakfast and brushing my teeth, I made my way back to my room to get dressed. There was one thing I vaguely noticed on my left arm. It looked like a mark of some kind, but I passed it off as unimportant. Hey- I was tired.

When I was all ready, I kissed my mom goodbye on the cheek and walked out the door on my way to school. It was a nice winter day out, but a little chilly, as I noted as I continued my walk to school. I wished I could stay outside in this weather for a little longer, but that wasn't going to happen.

* * *

By the time I arrived in front of the school, which was in walking-distance of my house, I felt much better. Chipper, really. Maybe it was the movement that got me up and running for first period- gym class. I strolled into the locker rooms and changed clothes again. A few of my friends were there too.

"Hey, man, did you feel that earthquake last night?"

"No, I missed it," I replied half-committedly, and made my way to my locker to stuff my school uniform in it while my friends continued chatting along, moving onto other subjects like which girls were looking impressive today and which weren't, and exam pains. I shook my head and passed them again after I put my clothes away. Before opening the door to the gym, I looked back once.

"Guys, quit gossiping like girls, or we're going to be late," I told them, grinning, and walked out the door as they laughed in reply and got moving as well.

No sooner had I gotten into the gym when the coach shouted in between intervals of blowing his whistle vehemently (or was it just angrily?), "Volleyball! Get into pairs!"

Great. I hated volleyball. I paused in the middle of the gym and listened for who I was going to be paired up with anyway.

"Currant! You're with Clark!" The coach finally barked at me. I was with Luna Clark. One of my friends patted me on the back. "Sorry, man," he offered jocosely.

Luna Clark. Sandy-blond, blue eyed, tall, and busty, she was the sportiest girl in the school. And, more importantly, she'd beat me to a pulp, because, guess what, she was the head of the volleyball team! This was going to be fun. Not really.

After we got into our opposite positions on the two sides of the net and greeted with a brief, "Hey what's up," and "Oh, nothing, you?" I found Luna eyeing me up and down, but not she did not meet my eyes until after she was done with her survey; her eyes were narrowed as she looked right at me. I wanted to make a retort, but I saved my energy. It was probably that she was being snarky and decided that I wasn't a good-enough opponent for her.

A whistle sounded in the distance. We had to get started. I sighed and served the ball, which immediately got caught in the net.

* * *

So I lost. Badly, as expected. I was walking out of the locker room when Luna Clark intercepted me.

"Um. Good game?" I said to her. She was still scrutinizing me.

"What's that on your arm?" She demanded outright. And the truth was, I had forgotten what was on my arm. I hadn't gotten a good look, either; so I looked down.

It was embarrassing. Very embarrassing. It looked a hell a lot like a male sign, but with a heart instead of a circle. Where the hell did that come from?

"It's a… I'm supporting gay rights," I replied a little too quickly. "Is there a problem?"

I didn't know why, but her scrutinizing, almost suspicious look vanished instantly. Her shoulders shrugged forward casually, but there was something else in that movement, of course I didn't notice it then. "Oh. That's nice. Sorry about that… And yeah, nice game."

Just then, one of her friends called to her, "Hey, Supergirl!" (Yeah, that was her nickname, 'cause she was so sporty and fit and all. Clark Kent, Luna Clark? Get it?), and then she was gone.

But that wasn't the end of my odd encounters regarding Supergirl.

The next time I saw her acting odd was during study hall; except that I wasn't the one who noticed it. Actually, it was my friend Travis; as I was catching up on my homework, paying no attention to anything around me, he had nudged me on the elbow to bring her to my attention. Since I didn't know that at the time, though, I looked up at him to find out what he wanted.

"What?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Hey, I think Clark has a crush on you," he said, wiggling his eyebrows, and cocked his head towards the back of the classroom.

"Shut up, Travis," I retorted with a smile and turned around. Luna Clark, sitting a few desks behind me, had averted her eyes with a blush. I remembered getting the kind of excitement that any teenage male would; I was that convinced that maybe that- infatuation, that is- was the reason she was acting the way she was. A pretty girl like her taking interest in me. Of course it turned out to be nothing like that kind of interest.

Throughout the day, I had actually gotten various comments on that stupid mark (one even came from a teacher), and I just offered the same excuse. But it wasn't until later that I really figured out what it was.

The earthquake also remained a main subject of school-talk the entire day. And everyone felt it but me.

* * *

It was around three o'clock in the afternoon. I was on my way home, and it was unusually cold, especially for the fall. I rubbed my shoulders and buttoned up my overshirt, with puffs of warm air drifting up and away from me as I exhaled. I adjusted my backpack strap over my shoulder.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a bell- no, two bells- in the distance. I turned my head towards the noise, a bit startled. But after a moment… I felt myself being drawn to it, connected to it. I _wanted_ to find where it was coming from.

 _It won't hurt to check it out... Right?_

I couldn't remember what passed until I got there, though I was conscious and aware as I followed the bells' chimes. I remembered walking along the empty sidewalk, rubbing my shoulders again every now and then because it was so cold- I also remembered how the cold bit at my skin- and looking around as if I was expecting something, someone. I didn't know where I was going. It felt so casual, maybe even natural, even though my feet were being dragged in front of me, one after the other, until I finally reached the place and was looking at a spectacle.

Without even having to think I recognized it to be a fight. But not just any fight- a magical _Mew Mew_ fight.

Now, the Mew Mews, the half-animal, teenage-girl superheroes who saved the world from the aliens who wanted it for their own had been gone for nine years; that's when I was eight, and now I was seventeen. There was even a popular anime, _Tokyo Mew Mew_ , made about them. They fought all the way back in Tokyo, Japan, too- and I lived in California. Not only was that a long time that went by, it was a long distance. So what exactly was it that I was looking at now? Apparently, the Tokyo Mew Mews hadn't completely eradicated the problem of the past. And here was one. In front of me.

So I was positively sure that there, in front of me, was a Mew Mew in a bright blue strapless, three-seamed corset-like one-piece that was fringed on the top and bottom with a light purple lining, with the top's being of a soft fuzz; if she wasn't a Mew Mew, she was an angel- which she clearly wasn't, because on the bottom line that was how Mew Mew outfits were supposed to look, even though they were all unique, right? Attached to the bottom lining she wore a sheer lavender high-low overskirt tinted with light blue that might touched the floor if not for her tall blue high heeled boots. As for her accessories, she also had the whole deal- garter, choker, and those puffy arm-bands included, each being blue and a light purple, the former being the primary color of the actual garments and the latter being the color of the soft, fuzzy material that fringed them similarly to the dress. On her head she wore a round, light purple headband, and her hair was a light sky blue with a light purple tint. In addition, which was more unusual to me but not for a Mew Mew, she had white dove wings and a white bird's tail, both of a soft purple-blue hue that matched her celestial color scheme. And she was fighting, too. Yep, there was no mistaking that this was a Mew Mew.

Who she was fighting, floating in the air in front of her, also confirmed that she was a Mew Mew, or at least some other part-animal superhero. Why? Because what she fought looked a hell of a lot like an alien- it sure didn't look human, anyway- and more specifically, like the aliens that appeared in the anime. But this one was a girl. She had the long, trademark alien ears that resembled an elf's and hair tied back in a neat brown braid, and wore a girly, exotic pink-laced orange two-piece. There were brown ribbons coming from the back of the bottom piece; I was unable to tell if they were actually part of her body or if they were just accessories. The sadistic smirk on her face was chilling. I couldn't tell how the alien was fighting, but I knew that she was losing; I didn't even have the time to determine that because she looked at me, stopping all of my thoughts. By the looks of it, she almost would have charged me if it weren't for the Mew Mew, who then took the opportunity of her distraction and gave another peal of her bells, crying out, "Lunar Song!" This caused the alien to shrink back, and a few moments later she disappeared. There were about three other figures that disappeared behind her, too, in the trees, but they all had escaped my notice too quickly. I was breathing rapidly, completely and utterly stupefied by what I was witnessing. I couldn't believe my eyes. I came to, and boy, was I shocked.

The Mew Mew narrowed her eyes as if she were expecting something more, which was very unsettling. So I was about to take my chance to make an escape before that something more came when she suddenly whipped her head around and looked my way, her lilac gaze piercing through me. Her eyes soon met my arm, and I had a sense of déjà vu- but instead of narrowing again, which I subconsciously expected them to, they widened. I looked down again.

The mark was glowing a bright red. And suddenly, the Mew Mew glowed in a purple beam of light, and then there was… Luna Clark. Supergirl from this morning! A light purple crescent-moon mark was also glowing, but this time right in the middle of her forehead. I stepped backwards. Don't tell me that I'd been going to school with a… What the….

What the hell was going on?


	2. Not a Girl, but a Mew Mew

"Why didn't you tell anyone!?" the Mew Mew, now Luna Clark, demanded. I stood stupefied, but I came to my senses enough to speak. It would be so cliché if I were to ask you if I was dreaming or not; and plus, I knew I wasn't.

"What do I have to tell? And why didn't _you_ tell anyone?" I retorted, my voice raising an octave, because I was still kind of shocked. I took the time to survey my surroundings. We were in a park- specifically, Riverside's local park. Because it was a weekday, nobody was around. It was so different when it was empty, serene and eerie at the same time. Fallen leaves scattered from their trees, left to dance delicately along the sidewalk. A chilly breeze carried them in a wide gust and I shivered.

"Oh, please. You know what we Mews have to do." She rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were a girl?! Or at least, was one? What else is your excuse?"

She lost me at the former statement; the second one just made me gape at her. "Where the hell did you get that comment from?!" I demanded. Her previous tone had told me that she knew her assumption of my being transgender- or at least, that's what I deduced from what she said- was completely ridiculous, so what was she asking that for? Perhaps it was even a sarcastic remark. Nevertheless, the comment irked me, because it was way too confusing. What did she mean by "we Mews," anyway? I was not a Mew Mew. I was, and am, a _guy_. So what was happening to me? I wanted to walk away so badly, but unfortunately I wouldn't, not without answers. As soon as I could get the answers that I wanted, I could walk away from everything else and get over it by next week. So what, Supergirl was a superhero.

Her eyes drifted over my body, and suddenly I had to try not to feel uncomfortable when they reached just below my torso because I couldn't avoid the feeling that she was sexing me even though she clearly knew that I was a male; the feeling only came from her previous sarcastic comment. As soon as she was finished with yet another survey of me - the one back at school had been of my arm, but this was worse- a puzzled look crossed her face. Good, now she was just as confused as I was.

Luna Clark put on her poker face. "You are a Mew Mew, right?" she asked, and her eyes widened. "Or…"

"NO!" I interjected. "I am not…" I trailed off there.

We stood there in such dead silence for a few moments, that the only sound I could hear was the rustling of the leaves on a nearby tree. Now it was getting awkward.

It took me a moment to realize that the rustling had gotten louder. The sound was almost unnatural now. Then, suddenly:

"LOOK OUT!" And there the Mew Mew was once more- she must have transformed again within those fractions of a second- leaping adroitly over an impressive distance to clash with something that had just come from the tree that was rustling. I backed up and almost ran away. But that feeling that I had gotten earlier possessed me again. I couldn't leave! "I knew it! The Cyniclons wouldn't give up that easily!" (I assumed that when she said "Cyniclons," she was referring to the aliens).

What was that thing Luna was fighting now? I thought to myself as I looked up at the creature, stepping back but still unable to leave. It looked like some monster feline crossed with a praying mantis. Its body was lithe like a cat's, but it had a dark green exoskeleton; and its raptorial arms had claws. From its body a long tail emerged, tipped with a poisonous barb. Set in its small, mantis-like head that was fully equipped with pincers were eyes, also feline, the sickly neon-green color of poison, pupils dilating wildly, and its ears, set on top of its head, were large and triangular, also like a cat's.

Within seconds, the thing had the Mew Mew pinned to a tree with its tail, and it was looking her right in the eye. Her two hand-bells, which were gold and displayed the same hot pink Mew logo, had a purple grip adorned with the trademark Mew bow, blue handles, and three sliver clappers, the middle being the longest and ending in a small crescent-moon, had fallen to the floor. The Mew Mew was sneering at the creature, undaunted, and managed to choke out, "You think I didn't know you were there, _Chimera Anima_?" What was odd, though, was that I could hear her; not only did she barely croak the words, there was also a good deal of distance between the two of us.

"Hey!" I shouted without thinking. That was not a smart idea at all, and it did not take me very long to realize that. Instantly, the monster's -or, the "Chimera Anima"'s- head jerked towards me in a disgustingly insect-like manner. It dropped the Mew Mew and lunged at me- except that the Mew Mew wasn't there to stop it this time.

"Fight the Chimera Anima!" she told me, not having to raise her voice, not even in the slightest degree; I could already hear her, the reason for which I was not even close to understanding.

But that's just what I did, I guess. I fought the Chimera Anima, and it all started with a change that had been put in motion as early as this morning. It was a pretty damn big change, too.

"Mew Currant, Metamorphosis!" I announced, the words running out of my mouth before I could even realize why I was saying them, or what I was even saying- it was like an instinct, as if I had known what to do. Which led to the question, what was I saying? I had no idea.

Then, all of a sudden, it felt like I was being pulled into some kind of chamber, nearly knocking the air out of my lungs because it was so unexpected and even a little abrupt. It was tight for a few seconds; but oddly enough, it wasn't uncomfortable. Warm, red light shone from behind my closed eyelids, as if I were facing the sun. But still… I thought I saw… a tiger? That faded quickly. I felt a tickling around me, perhaps a slight breeze. I felt like I was changing completely. My hair, my eyes, even my body…

I opened my eyes and was yanked out of the chamber. Was I...

Luna was standing up now. Her bells were back in her hands. Her eyes were widened- for a while I thought that she wasn't going to be moving any time soon- and she tried to mask her complete shock. How did I know that? Because it wasn't working.

What was she seeing in me?

I couldn't survey myself yet. I had to fight. "Currant Guitar!" I found myself exclaiming. What did that even mean? The words were spilling out of my mouth without thought, like I was possessed again. Except... I felt like me.

Shortly after the call was out, a red and white electric guitar appeared in the air front of me. It had wings of silver, and it was characterized by the Mew trademark that I happened to recognize, both from the TV show about the Mews and from Luna's own weapon. I snatched it out of the air, the gesture coming wholly naturally to me.

"SOUTH CHINA ROAR!" I yelled without even realizing what I was saying. Something told me that this was my attack. I was going to make my move. I had no idea how to play the guitar, and I should have been confused as to why I even had it- but then again I guess I didn't have to. I strummed the guitar once, and really hard, too, as I leaped into the air just as Luna Clark did to meet the beast when I first saw her fight. A crimson electric wave pulsated from the Mew logo, tinting the entire park incarnadine, accompanied by a sound not unlike the roar of a tiger, except higher and more like, well, a guitar.

My blood was rushing, roaring in my ears. It was a crazy feeling that I could not even begin to interpret. I was shocked, but still, I was running on instincts and my adrenaline was pumping.

The monster's scythe-like raptorial arm had stopped mid-swing. Flinching, it inched a bit closer before stopping to recover. It raised its body and made some kind of rapid, but faltering, chirping noise. Now it was angry- and weak. I circled it, and it circled me; actually, it's more accurate to say that it simply rotated its body because it was so big. This seemed to go on forever.

I held my breath, ready for another attack. It was so quiet that I thought I heard my heart beating.

However, now Luna was ready to meet it halfway and end its rampage once and for all.

"Brûlée Bells! … Lunaaar… SONG!" Then came the sound of her bells. The monster raised its raptorial arms in front of itself as if to block the attack, but as soon as the light blue sound wave reached it, it uttered a lingering cry of defeat and lowered its arms, staggering. And then, poof. It had dispersed into a light cloud of sparkles; but where it was once standing, a cat stood, and a little light-blue, ghost-like sprite was floating over it. The cat looked at us, frightened, then high-tailed itself into the bushes.

Luna walked over to the spot where the monster had once been, and she cupped the little sprite. "I've got you, little sucker. You won't be possessing any more animals while I'm around," she muttered, then turned towards me. "So you didn't know?" she asked as she began to walk my way. I felt the sudden urge to back up a step or two, but I stayed in place.

Just then, I finally got the chance to look at myself, since whatever feeling that had possessed me had abated. I looked down. I was no longer wearing my school uniform; instead, I was wearing a long, red, three-seamed, collared sleeveless coat on with criss-crossed drawstrings over my chest that connected the left and right sides that ended right before the coattail ends extended sharply outwards; under that was a short red top seamed in a similar manner (I hesitate to say that my lower abdomen was showing), and then a pair of red pants, which were seamed in the same way. I had gray boots with red buckles, and upon holding my hands in front of me, I saw that I had gray gloves that had one red buckle each. I also without a doubt now wore the additional classic Mew Mew trademarks- a garter, two sleeve-puffs, and a collar that was adorned with a pendant with a hot pink heart under another larger, hollow one, followed by six raindrop-shaped specks, three lining each edge of the bottom of the pendant. All three of these accessories were red with the secondary color of gray, which was the color of the fuzzy border that lined the top and bottom of each. Now I took a step back. I looked so damn girly- now what else had happened to me?

There was a flash of purple light, and Luna Clark, sports extraordinaire- not the Mew Mew- was standing in front of me again.

She stuck her closed hand in her pocket, dropped the sprite in, leaving it to undulate softly within it, and it came back up with a round, silver compact. When she handed it to me, I took it hesitantly after staring at it for a second or two and then opened it.

A jolt shot through me as soon as I saw myself in the mirror. I wasn't the same at all. My hair wasn't the same at all. It looked more windblown, and, not to mention, it was a bright red. The same went for my eyes. Oh yeah, and the ears too. My ears were not the same. They were the ears of a tiger, and one had a gold loop earring.

Shocked beyond words, I then slowly tilted the compact down my body, feeling my ears with my free hand for authenticity. If the ears weren't enough, behind the coat I saw that I had a tail, too, which had two golden rings looped over it and was drawn through a hole in the top of my coattail that I perceived to be diamond-shaped. Jesus!

"What the... hell?" I stuttered, looking down at myself once more in person. "What is this? What was _that?_ " It couldn't have been real. But again, since I told you that I would be cliché-free, I knew that it was. I was shocked and confused, but I was not in denial.

Luna shrugged and snagged the compact out of my hand. How could she feel so comfortable with what she was looking at? She had acted like she had been down the same road.

So maybe she had.

I looked at her, and remarked, slowly, as if to let it settle:

"I'm a freaking Mew Mew." I turned into a Mew Mew. Just like Luna. Just as I said this, I felt the soft touch of a snowflake on my bare shoulder. And then another.

"I saw," Luna said, though she appeared surprised by my confirmation, as if she hadn't expected me to not know, and flipped her long, sandy blonde hair -yes, it was no longer blue and purple- over her shoulders. Her expression hardened suddenly as if she had made some kind of important decision.

"Justin," she began. "We're gonna need to talk. Text your parents or something- because this is going to be a while, I think."


End file.
